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Show 1 rimmiiiwtm1 I CHARGES GONNiVANGE TO GIVE 1 AWAY VALUABLE PUBLICATION 1 J ISSUED BY THE GOVERNMENT na i WaHilngtnn, Muy 1. How tho m ... amcl.il U. 8. Ilullolln published by I f the commltco an public Information M I ' (he bureau hended by George Creel t llli its tiemendouB facilities for I v obtaining lufornintlon on govern-I govern-I I mental activities, Its huge mailing I and subscription Hals and vlitually I eery valu.iblo asBCt of tho commit-I commit-I fee was tinned over to private cn- SS1 . ! Serprific without one penny's compen-BB compen-BB Vs. ' allon to the government Is disclosed B'"4'!' Sn report of tho Joint congressional congression-al ( 1 committee on printing, now boforo JH i - congress for nctlou. am Tho report recommends that legal IS ' 5f not criminal proceedings bo In-M In-M j stlluted against Creel, Itogcr V. H Jiabson, and Kdwnrd S, Rochester, U ho are chnrgsd with secrotly con-II con-II j Irlng to give away tho ofllclal Bui-H Bui-H I ,e"" and looting Its assets. The re-H re-H j Sort Is signed by Senator need Smoot chairman, and L'dgar It. Kelss and was adopted without a dissenting vote from either Democratic or Ito-publican Ito-publican members of tho committee George Creel Is charged with secretly se-cretly conniving with Roger W.Bab-son, W.Bab-son, head of tho Ilabson Information servlco and formeily chief of tho Information In-formation and education service of tho department of labor to glvo away tho Ofllclal Bulletin, a war time publication pub-lication without any compensation to the government although close to a million dollars had been spent in building up tho publication. Characterizing Creel as the master mas-ter publicist, the committee attributes attrib-utes to him and his committee responsibility re-sponsibility tor much of tho craving for government publicity and the! road orgy ot wasteful printing which ! has characterized tho last three yean I Severe condemnation Is given Creel J i i a.&'itil,uoclAtML .because. theOfll-clat theOfll-clat Bulletin was turned over to Bab-son Bab-son who with a slight change In Its name Is now conducting It for profit with every effort to have It still appear ap-pear as a government publication. "When It became evident to Creel and Rochester, who was tho editor of tho ofllclal bulletin, that it would not be continued as a government organ," or-gan," the report reads, "there seems to have been a dcllberato effort to loot this $600,000 a year publication. A gang of safe blowers could hardly have created greater havoc In a country coun-try bank than did theso government employes In tho office of tho ofllclal budlctin, when the final word was given that Undo Sam had refused, to continue as their benevolent paymaster. "To the ordinary business man or publisher It would seem thai a publication pub-lication having a circulation of 100-000 100-000 copies dally and cotlng more than ?600,000aa n year for white paper and printing muBt have considerable con-siderable files and records at the close ot Its business and that they would be In some order for deter-' I mining tho affairs ot such a preten- I tlout establishment. "The fact Is however the .records ot the Official Bulletin as well as I those of the entire committee on 'public Informatfdn were lift In such a chaotic condition that Congress has had to make a large appropriation to another branch of tho government services to audit the affairs ot the defunct Creel organization. "The liquidating officer In charge of this work has already reported that literally thousands of dollars In checks sent in as subscriptions to the Ofllclal Bulletin were found strewn about In the records left by Creel and his associates were careful to months to restore any semblance of order in the affairs of the bureau. The committee declares that Creel and his associates were earful to make a record at least acrordlng to their personal files to establish an "alibi" should their transactions with Babson bo questioned later. They filed a notice that all tiles and records of tho office were open to the public but according to the committee com-mittee no publicity was given this nqtlco and as a matter of fact Babson Bab-son alone enjoyed the privilege ot consulting and copying the office records and paid nothing for It. Tho right to consult the records the report re-port declares was denied a rival and competitor ot the Babson organization. i "Not only was Babson permitted thus secretly to take over the mailing mail-ing lists of tho Bulletin, but the subscription accounts were also opened op-ened up for him to copy. Babson thus became aware of the exact amount am-ount due on, every unexpired subscription. sub-scription. He at onco circularized all these subscribers, stating that the amount due would be refunded by tho governmnet and urging tho subscribers sub-scribers to assign him the amount due so that It might be credited for a continuance of the Bulletin, Babson Bab-son evidently Intended to later reimburse re-imburse himself by presenting those assigned claims to the government liquidating officers, well knowing that Congress had ample provision for reimbursing him' The committee slited farther that it - . Rochester, who waa continued aa editor of the Bulletin when Babaoa took It over from the Creel committee, commit-tee, urged subscribers to continue their names' on the circulation books because the publication would be published in the samo form by tho same staff and at the same office. Publication ot the Ofllclal Bulletin, as the organ of the committee on public Information, cost the government govern-ment $580,495.22, tho Joint congressional con-gressional committee stated. Babson, tho committee said, continued con-tinued In his "high salaried position" posi-tion" with tho department of labor after taking over the Official Bulletin Bulle-tin as a prlcate enterprise. "Ho never overlooked an opportunity to advertise himself at government expense ex-pense as Is evident by the many Bnbsonlzcd publications Issued by the department of labor during his 'war service' on Uncle Sam's pay roll,' the report added. Tho committee com-mittee found that Clayton was continued con-tinued on the pay roll or tho department depart-ment of labor "whllo devoting most ,pf his time to his duties as 'manager of tho Bulletin, published by Mr.. 'JJabBon." |
